Please let us know if you attend the rally before the meeting. Seeing photos from Twitter; looks like a good crowd at the rally. The West Seattle Blog is there reporting. I am going to attempt to live blog so you will see abbreviations, spelling/grammar errors, etc. I will clean it up but I think it is worth trying to do. I will be refreshing the page as I go. I am sad to see that apparently President Liza Rankin is not even going to allow 10 people over the regular 20 to testify. Just five. Also, right at the beginning, the Board has stuck in, after Board comments, a Progress Monitoring presentation. They could have put it at the end but they didn't. They think - in 45 minutes - they can do Superintendent comments, Board comments and this presentation. I doubt that public testimony will start on-time. Tone-deaf doesn't even cover it with Board leadership. To note, apparently the district scheduled the NE community meeting on closures on Rosh Hashanah which is October 2. I
Comments
There are many children there, tucked by the banks of the Duwamish. I worry that this bridge closing will have multiple effects on this little corner of the city: Stores will lose business, workers will face difficulty traveling, kids will be disconnected from half the city.
Different "bridge," but as I did some work down there years ago, helping John Beal (the saviour of Hamm Creek, a feeder to the Duwamish) help some kids help the creek through town, I was struck by the tragedy of THIS bridge (the 16th Ave South Bridge) closing. It's the little things that add up for a kid - I hope the city, county and state can continue to direct funds to its replacement: They've raised quite a bit, lately (bless 'em) but we're still 60 million or so shy.
Wed or Thurs last week I got the scary statistic card...
"Only 17% of HS grads in Sea have taken classes necessary for entrance to a 4-yr college"
"Only 40% of WA's 8th graders scored proficient on national math exam"
"Almost 50% of the students in com college have to take basic HS math again."
"100% of WA kids deserve to graduate ready for life."
Saturday's follow up card said only-
"The Revolution is coming...
RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW
Get ready
educationvoters.org/revolution"
So. LEV is going with "revolution". Their rev page has a snappy video w/ a good soundtrack and a bunch of quotes and stats- KIPP, teacher quality and early learning are good; drop out rates are a problem, spending on corrections outpaces ed spending...
It's an impressive campaign they're rolling out. But revolution is not a word I take lightly. AERO just held their 7th annual conference and the folks involved have been working towards an ed rev for a long time now. They have a wealth of information, research and experience to share. I hope LEV and anyone else interested in revolution beyond reform connects with the people who have been working on this for decades.
We don't HAVE to standardize, systematize, corporatize, and otherwise privatize public education.
There ARE alternatives, no matter what pap they're pouring this week at Education Is Us.
He's currently on trial (lawsuit filed by the Board) for taking Broad Foundation money - its considered a conflict of interest! - and for overstepping the mark by the wholesale closing of schools and firing principals without due process and transparency...
Its really scarey what's happening... and its not just about education... its moving towards complete control of communities... see what Dora has posted on the SeattleEd2010 blog about what's happening in Chicago....
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/
Scroll down to the bottom of the Robert Bobb post and see what billionaire foundations are doing to take over the city....
Reply to District's brief from Appellants Porter, Mass, McLaren on 6-21-2010
HERE
The meat of this is in pages 1 through 6.
Thanks.
"Washington's assessment manager, Joe Willhoft, who is leading one of the coalitions, said this is an opportunity for the states to fix a testing system too focused on meeting federal rules and to get back to testing children to give guidance to teachers and improve education."
Joe Willhoft gave us WASL madness. Is this really the guy for a 31 state consortium to guide the construction of a common assessment?
Bigger Madness in a Larger Wrapper.
I am figuring it passes 4-3.
Three directors have been somewhat consistent in opposing certain MGJ madness and the "Rubber Stamping Four" seems to be solid as ever.
What do others see?
I still have it in my sights to get to more PTA members at individual schools to spread the word in school communities to consider signing the No Confidence Declaration - we covered elementary schools but still need to get to middle and high schools... (if anyone wants to help with sourcing email addresses off PTA websites and sending the letter that went out to the other parents two weeks ago, let me know...)
The community declaration of no confidence stands at 374 signatures - would love to get that to 500 before July 7th (please spread the word) http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?S3B62010
12 schools have voted no confidence - not sure where the others are at...
From an SEA staff member:
"The Seattle EA has a position opposing the extension of the superintendent's contract and that position has been conveyed to membership last week. The new VP will likely speak to it next week at the Board meeting. Until we have a School Board who is not in the Supe's pocket it mostly falls on deaf ears though!",
to which I replied:
"It doesnt matter that it falls on deaf ears as much as it matters that the position is put out there and the Seattle community see that many, many people, teachers and citizens, feel the same way, so that the School Board will look silly (at the least) for ignoring us and going forward regardless.... and some of us are looking at ways to ensure the... See More Directors who are rubber stampers get unseated at the next elections....why doesnt the SEA join us in that... put forward some money to support non-corporatist board candidates... communty and teachers - two legs of the three legged stool that is SPS... we need to work together, not separately.... we have a lot of interests in common and one common threat - the Super and the reformist agenda she's implementing here in Seattle for the Billionaire Boys Club."
and the media are still interested - did an interview with the Capital Hill Blog reporter yesterday and sent her off to Meg Diaz in search of hard data to back up our assertions about poor management and decision making....
Interview is supposed to be posted July 1...
Who wants to help make an impact on July 7th? Who wants to help write emails to the Board etc and connect with the press and local neighbourhood blogs?
Let me know if you do:
metamind_universal@yahoo.com
I have had one post not show in a moderated thread. I don't believe there was a technical error on my part (though it is possible), which makes me suspect it was rejected. The thing is, I have no way of knowing - especially without any kid of feedback telling me that I posted something against guidelines.
Another post that I made didn't show up until three days later. If someone is going to moderate a thread, at least check and approve posts frequently, otherwise just declare that your locking/killing the thread ('cuz that's effectively what it accomplishes).
I don't believe any of this was intentional or punitive, but in the absence of other evidence, I am left to wonder...
Open the pod bay doors, Word Verifier...Word Verifier? Word Verifier?
WV merely replies: "Unsides." As IF it's still neutral, ha!
I've dragged the wife to work twice since last Wed, and we've put in 3 hours and 2 hours cleaning up. I've also gone in on my own, and now I'm up to 16 hours.
(I've only put in a few hours a day for 2 reasons. 1. I kind of tweaked my tweaky back on Friday the 18th !!! 2. After a year of new ambush math curriculum, a few hours of thinking ... whew, I'm done. )
WHAT have I accomplished? I have appx. 30 milk /storage crates of stuff ! appx. 12 of those milk crates are stuffed with stuff I used this year, and which I want to paw through organize. Appx. 6? 10? crates have stuff to get me (160+ students) going for several weeks regardless what kind of start-of-the-year insanity the district throws at us / me. So that leaves 8 or 10 crates of junk I just use. What I've accomplished is that the 3 different sets of junk are in 3 different places, 1 place locked up so it doesn't disappear in summer school. **
So, is it the end of year head cold AND the tweaky back AND the end of year fatigue which has me COMPLETELY out of patience with unpaid for idea$ from arne's alliances of leagues of the credentialed and the clueless?
(HINT - naw!)
What would happen if, in our society and on our planet, what would happen IF senior people got advanced degrees which actually helped them run things better - What would happen IF senior people could ONLY get those jobs, and could ONLY get that advanced training, IF they had PROVEN success in performance and management?
We the U.S., and we the globe would have education systems which worked for 99+% of our kids, we'd have health care systems which got people back being useful, we'd have retraining and unemployment programs which got people back to contributing ...
instead of armies of charlatan consultants.
BM